Bushwick Bill

Richard William Stephen Shaw (December 8, 1966 – June 9, 2019), better known by his stage name Bushwick Bill, was a Jamaican rapper. He was a member of the Texas hip hop group Geto Boys, a group he originally joined as a breakdancer in 1986 as Little Billy. He went on to become one third of the most popular incarnation of the group, alongside Willie D and Scarface.

Bushwick Bill was born Richard William Stephen Shaw on December 8, 1966, in Kingston, Jamaica and was raised in Bushwick, Brooklyn. His father was a merchant mariner and his mother was a maid. He was born with dwarfism and as an adult was listed as 3 feet 8 inches (112 cm) tall.

Shaw got his start in the music industry in 1986 as a member of the Geto Boys, where he performed as a dancer known as Little Billy. He later transitioned to rapping and was featured on the Geto Boys' debut album, Making Trouble in 1988. The album received little attention and negative reviews, which led to Rap-A-Lot dropping all members from the group except for Bill and DJ Ready Red. Soon afterwards, Rap-A-Lot CEO J. Prince recruited Scarface and Willie Dee, two local aspiring artists from Houston to be in the second incarnation of the group. The new lineup began recording together in 1988 and their debut project as a group and second overall for the Geto Boys, Grip It! On That Other Level was released in 1989 to a much better reception, being considered a classic album and one of the earliest entries into the horrorcore genre. Around that time the group's lyrical content began to generate controversy, which multiplied in 1991 when the cover of the group's third album We Can't Be Stopped depicted a graphic image of Bill moments after he was shot during an argument with his girlfriend. Nevertheless, the album went on to be their most successful to that point, being certified platinum in 1992.